Welsh Housing Awards 2024

Read all the shortlisted entries into this award category, excellence in preventing homelessness, at the Welsh Housing Awards (WHA) 2024 and find out who won the award on the night.

This award recognises organisations, individuals or projects that have worked towards preventing or relieving homelessness in the communities they work in.

This award was sponsored by Pobl.

This entry also won our WHA 2024 award for supporting independent living.

Statement of support

Tai Ffres is a collaborative service between United Welsh and Llamau to deliver a bespoke housing pathway for young people aged 16-25 years old in Wales.

As a youth-focused housing service, Tai Ffres offers safe, secure, and affordable homes for young people in Wales, with access to asset based coaching as required.

Tai Ffres helps to create safe spaces for young people, where they can thrive and realise their potential. Tai Ffres provides services to young people who are homeless or threatened with homelessness, fulfilling a crucial gap in housing provision:

• Where young people do not need specialised supported housing provision
• Where young people are ready to move into independent accommodation from specialised supported housing provision
• Where young people are ready to leave looked after care services such as “When I’m Ready” or supported lodgings services
• Homes that are affordable for young people in low income or insecure work, training or education.

Tai Ffres is founded on the principle of preventing homelessness (or where homelessness has already occurred – ensuring it is very brief and unrepeated).

The expert knowledge and experience of United Welsh and Llamau identified gaps in housing pathways for young people moving out of homelessness services and for those at risk of becoming homeless.

Many young people moving into independent general needs housing, from specialist supported services or temporary homelessness services, are at risk of homelessness due to:

• Tenancy failure
• Developing more complex issues if they are unsupported to move into appropriate general needs housing provision, either within the social or private rented sectors
• Living in precarious financial circumstances due to the limited availability of affordable private rented accommodation
• Struggling with extreme cost of living pressures.

Tai Ffres seeks to move beyond a narrow focus of providing young people with a roof over their head, to providing a more rounded approach which carefully considers the blend of housing, neighbourhood, finances, skills development, support, processes, relationships, and community, giving a young person the best possible chance of success in life and making a significant difference in preventing homelessness in Wales.

While Tai Ffres is a new model to the UK, similar models of provision for young people have been in operation elsewhere in the world for over fifty years. United Welsh and Llamau have been inspired by international colleagues in Finland and Australia, and have drawn on these longstanding services as examples to emulate for young people in Wales.

Tai Ffres accommodation costs far less to the public purse than temporary accommodation. The homes are high quality and provide a long-term home for young people, as they are funded through a low-cost loan facility provision from Welsh government.

The specific benefits of this form of capital finance are:

• Borrowing through a low-cost loan facility allows to significantly reduce operating costs as there are loan finance costs to factor in
• Lower operating costs for this service enables Tai Ffres to offer the lowest rents in Cardiff; significantly lower than private rented accommodation and lower than all other housing association accommodation in the city
• Not having to service debt enables us to have low rents and still be able to run the service with zero requirement for Housing Support Grant (HSG). The four members of staff are fully funded from the rent income from the stock portfolio (even at record low rents)
• Having the funds immediately available allows us to move quickly to acquire and refurbish properties
• The long-term nature of the loan allows us to think and act strategically
• The service is sustainable and scalable
• The service is not at risk due to short term revenue grants or funding cycles.

Outcomes and achievements

Tai Ffres outcomes are best seen though the voices of young people:

“[Interviewer: How is your relationship with your family?]

“Better now I've moved out. I feel like when we were all on top of each other, it was arguments and then a baby in the mix […] It was just arguments that wouldn't be if we weren't overcrowded. Now, we get along fine that I live by myself. Yeah, it's amazing now [laughs] that I live where I live on my own with [my son]. And then they have theirs and then we just visit now.”

“Since he [resident’s partner] was like 18 or something he's been in and out of hostels before. The place he was in before was a hostel, and we didn't live together. He, like, came over the temporary accommodation [that resident was staying in] and like stayed for a day or two in the week, but then you have to go back to the hostels [because] you could lose your space. But our plan was like when we moved into a permanent place he'd go on the tenancy, and it'd be our space. And he doesn't have to go in and out of hostels anymore.”